Brownsville Independent School District School Board members voted to adopt a new tax rate Monday. Now it will be up to voters to decide if it passes

"The district is going to call for an election in November. Tax Ratification Election for Pennies so that we can utilize all that additional money to give all of our employees a raise," Brownsville ISD Superintendent Rene Gutierrez said.

If it passes, the district will be able to collect $10 million. Gutierrez says 100 percent will go straight to employee pay raises.

"We already got the school year started. We want to reward and compensate our employees," Gutierrez said.

Although the rate change is increasing how much the district can collect, it's actually almost 18 cents less than last year.

This is the district's lowest tax rate since 1992. A result of the state's new property tax bill signed last month.

Superintendent Gutierrez says taxpayers will not see an increase to their tax bill.

"Contrary to that, taxes are going down. From our calculations, if the Tax Ratification Election passes, the community will see an 18 cent decrease in their taxes," Gutierrez said.

Texas Valley Educators Association Executive Director Adina Alegria says the benefit is a raise to employee salaries.

The district made the decision to hold a Tax Ratification Election because they don't have additional funding coming in from the state on top of the district not maximizing their maintenance and operation funds.

"Essentially if we didn't do this then our employees, our members, our employees from the school district stand to receive nothing," Alegria said.

If voters say yes in November, all employees are expected to get a 2 percent pay increase. If it doesn't pass, the district will lose out on that money, and it will head back to the state.

That's because there's a cap that a local district tax revenue can collect. Now the district will be working to inform the community on the ballot item.

Teacher associations like TVEA will also be working on educating the community. The election is set for November 7.